A Bug Without Wings
by vendetta543
Summary: No Ladybug, no Chat Noir and no Miraculous stones. Just a baker's daughter, a fashion designer's son and the budding relationship between the two.
**Well this is something new for me. I'm trying to branch out a bit from my usual stories and I figured a rom-com would be a good start. The quality's not gonna be the best so please bear with me. Hopefully I can improve the longer the story goes on.**

* * *

Marinette, contrary to popular belief, didn't believe in love at first sight.

Yes, yes, it seemed silly given her infatuation with a certain classmate of hers, but she liked to think it was more than childish crush on an attractive schoolmate; that he happened to be attractive as well as being perfect was simply a happy coincidence, nothing more.

Okay, she couldn't deny that he was handsome. More than handsome actually, he was...ah, she couldn't find the words to describe it! It was to be expected, of course. Considering his face was plastered on just about every billboard it stood to reason that he would be photogenic. Being a model couldn't have been an easy job and she was pretty sure looking pretty was one of the requirements.

Going back to the matter at hand - Yes, her crush (love, passion, _desire_ ) for Adrien was there, but it was more than shallow physical attraction. Yes he was a model and yes she wasn't blind to that, but that wasn't what attracted her to him. Truth be told when she'd first seen him he was surrounded by a crowd of excited schoolmates. It was his first time attending a public school and he looked positively overwhelmed by the crowd of cheering fans that surrounded him.

She knew who he was, but back then he was nothing more than 'Gabriel Agreste's son'. Easy on the eyes, certainly, but she'd seen enough of his magazines that it was nothing special to her. His name struck more of a cord: Agreste fashions was the biggest name in the industry, at least as far as Paris was concerned. The model son of a famous fashion designer, little wonder why overexcited schoolmates latched onto him.

Still, the fawning didn't last. While they never stopped giving him lovestruck eyes - which she was guilty of at times, she had to admit - pretty soon he had integrated into the school proper. She couldn't tell if it was because of her classmates in particular or the image wearing off but no one in her class seemed to treat him as if he was special...apart from Chloe, of course, and she seemed to do it mostly because she thought it made her look better.

She couldn't tell when exactly it was that she fell in love with him. It wasn't because of some grand romantic gesture like those couples in fiction, and they didn't have a particularly strong relationship prior to her crush. They were classmates, not even friends really, but now she couldn't imagine spending the rest of her life with anyone else but him.

If she had to name one thing that got her attention it was his kindness, quickly followed by his humility. He was endearing to a fault, helping anyone in the class with what they needed even when they never asked him to whether it be helping Kim with his workouts, Juleka with one of her independent projects or even just being helpful in general. Despite his schedule he seemed to do his best to make time for the others.

And of course he never bragged. Successful fashion model, fencing ace, fluent in multiple languages, practically flawless and yet she never once heard the young man boast. Heck she'd only found out about a lot of those things after st...carefully observing his daily schedule (and carefully making a copy for herself to post on her dropboard...) along with Alya's occasional help for his photoshoot timetable.

Slowly but surely she fell in love with him. Alya poked fun of her at first, calling it a 'celebrity crush' that would pass given enough time, but it only strengthened the more time passed. She wanted to be with him, of that she was sure.

It was made quite clear the first time she'd stuttered (completely embarrassed herself) in front of him. It was when she'd forgotten to do her homework and spent the entirety of her morning trying to solve as much of the math as possible. Thankfully she'd arrived at school early so the classroom was empty, which left her half and hour to answer twenty five geometry questions...joy. Alya wasn't answering her phone, probably trying to find her next big scoop.

"If 'x' is the value of the sum then...no wait, that's..." What had she done to deserve this? She was a good girl, she respected her parents and did her best to be nice. What on earth could have possessed her to forget Miss Mendeliev's assignment!? She wasn't like Miss Bustier, she wouldn't get away with this _affront_ (her words) without being forced to stand in the halls. Evidently the strict teacher believed in dated punishments.

Oh, she was tired. Covering her mouth to muffle her yawn, she sat up straighter and tried to jolt herself awake. When she got home she would collapse on her bed, but until then she had to finish this up.

So busy was she with her work that she missed the sound of the door opening and the footsteps drawing closer to her, "Come on, I should know this..." She licked her lips and glared at tablet. Maybe if Alya arrived early she could beg to see her answers. Her best friend would never abandon her in her time of need-

"Need some help?"

"Bwah!" She wasn't ashamed to admit that she fell out off her seat and right on her buttocks, but it was nothing to the sheer embarrassment of Adrien offering her a hand to pull her up, "U-Um...uh..." She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came save some garbles noises. She closed her lips and swallowed audibly, accepting his offer of help. God why did he look so perfect in the sunlight?

"Sorry, didn't mean to surprise you." He smiled. At her. Adrien was smiling at her. She felt faint, "You were doing Miss Mendeliev's assignment, right?" She could only nod mutely as he picked up her tablet, "Yeah, it was pretty hard. I had to search the net to figure some of these out. I swear they're not in the books." He tapped the eleventh problem, "This one really got to me. You have any ideas?"

"Oh, um...no..." She wanted to say more, but if she pressed it any further she was sure she was going to start rambling and then he would get annoyed and leave and then a rumor would spread about how much of a spaz she was and then he would never talk to her again and then they couldn't get married with their three kids and hamster and then-

"You too, huh?" He placed his bag in his seat before taking the seat next to her, "Wanna exchange some ideas? I have a few ideas and you answered some of the questions I missed so maybe if we pool together we can avoid Miss Mendeliev's 'wrath'." There was that smile again. Oh what did she do to deserve this good luck? Had she done something to receive such good fortune?

"Y-Yes!" Did she sound desperate? Please let her not sound too desperate, "Um...I mean...yeah if we work together maybe we...let's just start working."

The next twenty minutes were a blur. She distinctly remembered Adrien giving her pointers on how to do a few of the numbers and her (somehow) responding in kind. By the time their classmates began to trickle in they solved all but three problems before they both decided to cut their losses; it was near impossible to get a perfect on Miss Mendeliev's tests so they could take what they could get.

"Thanks, Marinette." He gave her a small wave before sitting next to Nino and giving him a high-five. They were talking about the new game or...or something, it didn't matter. She could watch him talk all day.

Marinette waved back, mouth parting in an open, awkward smile as Alya sat next to her, "Uh...any reason you're like that?" She raised an eyebrow and pulled the jittering hand down, "You should see the glare Chloe's giving you. She probably thinks you're trying to steal 'her Adrykins again," She rolled her eyes, "Hey, you listening? I know you're still in a rush but you might wanna pay attention."

"Huh?" She blinked and turned her gaze to the queen bee. She was definitely glaring, Sabrina following her example and giving her the stink eye (though it looked far less intimidating). She wasn't worried; she gave Chloe ten minutes before she was distracted by something on her phone and she forgot all about her 'outrage'. It wouldn't be the first time it happened.

"Yeesh, she acts like a dog that marked a fire hydrant. Pretty sure she's gonna try something so watch out, okay? I don't wanna lose my best friend," Alya warned.

"It'll be fine, Alya. I can handle anything she throws at me." She grinned. Nothing could sour this day for her, absolutely nothing.

Class came and went, and her mood only improved when she got a good score on the assignment. Adrien gave her a thumbs up, which she managed to return (with Alya's help). The entire day was uneventful; apart from an argument between Chloe and Ivan about something the former said about Mylene - the boy definitely liked her, Marinette could tell - there little else worth noting.

It was nearing the end of the day and she felt her eyes drooping. Miss Bustier was talking about something, but it was difficult to make out. She blamed her father; despite being a responsible dad he had a certain weakness when it came to video games. The new mech battle game had come out and since her mother wasn't willing to play him he had more or less dragged his one and only daughter to stay up with him till just shy of midnight.

Granted she could have left any time she wanted, but still! It was totally irresponsible of him to let her stay up that long on a school night!

She focused at the young man sitting in front of her. He was taking notes diligently as always. Her lips quirked up in a light smile; even through her fatigue the sight of him was enough to put her at ease. His head suddenly snapped up to ask a question, his fluffy hair bouncing slightly. Her hand reached out lazily; if she stretched for just a bit more she would be able to run her hands through it...

"...Marinette? Is something wrong?"

That was Miss Bustier's voice. Right, she was still in class-

She was still in class!

Jolting up, she looked around the room and found her classmates all staring at her. Most of them appeared to be confused, though she didn't miss Chloe whispering something to Sabrina and the redhead dutifully laughing. Next to her Alya covered her face with both hands and shook her, muttering what distinctly sounded like 'Girl, why the heck would you do that?'

The worst was Adrien. He looked at her as if she had grown a second head, one hand rubbing the back of his head.

What...What exactly did she do? The last thing she remembered was-

"Marinette, why exactly were you touching Adrien's head?"

Oh God...now she'd done it. Groaning, she had to resist the urge to smash her head head on the desk. Chloe's laughter joined Sabrina's now and the rest of her classmates continued to look at her, waiting for an explanation. She couldn't get out of this, there was no way. She'd fallen half-asleep and touched that head of fluffy hair. It didn't matter if it was tempting, one didn't just do something like that! Now she would have to move out of the school and never see Adrien again.

"Uh, you see-"

"It was my fault, Miss Bustier," Adrien spoke up. All attention was drawn to him now, "I had a bug on the back of my head. I didn't notice earlier and Marinette must have seen it before I did." He stomped the nonexistent insect and dragged his foot under his desk. Nino gave him a disbelieving look, "Ahahaha...sorry about that. It must be the perfume I'm wearing. Father did tell me there might be side-effects."

"Well, if you say so." She looked between the uneasy blonde and the blushing brunette, "To continue, the project will be due in two weeks. Please work together with your partners and remember that visual aids are key." She tapped her laser pointer on the board, "Movies, powerpoints, anything that will grab attention. Just make sure that it's actually relevant to the topic chosen." She gave Rose a pointed glance.

"Yes, Miss Bustier." Marinette could see the small girl pout and Juleka tapping her shoulder to try and comfort her. As sweet as Rose was she had a habit of going off-topic in her love for all things cute-

Wait, what project?

"What project?" She whispered to Alya.

"You weren't listening at all, were you?" Marinette gave her a sheepish smile and her best friend sighed, "Seriously, where would you be without me?"

"Yes, yes. I owe you everything, Lady Alya. This humble girl bows to you for all the help you've given." She stuck her tongue out briefly, making sure it wasn't seen by the teacher. Class would be dismissed soon and she wanted to avoid another incident, "Seriously, what project? Dad kept me up all night playing that new game so I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Yeah, it was all your dad's fault. You're completely blameless, I'm sure." She poked her shoulder and laughed, "Anyway, it's a pair work. We're supposed to pick a piece of art that's at least twenty years old and then pinpoint what could have influenced it. You know, society, the artist's circumstances or whatever. Oh, and it has to be a French artist just to make that clear."

"Sounds easy enough," Marinette said, "Alright, so do we go to the museum after school or-"

"Woah, woah. We're not partners." She jerked her thumb in Nino's direction, "Miss Bustier assigned us partners, which you'd know if you were paying attention." The grin on Alya's face suddenly made her feel uneasy, "Anyway, you're going to _love_ this."

Class was officially over, and with it another packed schedule. Well, at least he could use the project to cancel today's appointments. Going to the museum should get him out of-

Adrien jumped in his seat as Marinette screamed behind him. Looking back, the French-Chinese girl gave him an uneasy smile and slid her head under her desk, "Uh, Marinette, are you alright?" He heard an unintelligible noise which he could only assume was a yes. After waiting another minute it was clear she wasn't getting up, much to Alya's consternation, "Well...since we've been assigned as partners I figured we could go to the museum today and then meet up at your place tomorrow. Is that okay?"

More unintelligible noises. Alya rolled her eyes and pulled the girl up by her blazer's sleeves, "She said yes and that she'll meet you outside." She elbowed Marinette's side, "And wasn't there something else you wanted to say, Mari?"

"I-I'msorryfortouchingyourhairand-"

"It's fine, Marinette." Adrien raised both hands to try and calm her, "You were sleepy, we do weird things when we're tired. You should get some rest after we get our art piece."

"Yeah, man, remember the last time you crashed at my place?" Nino supplied. Adrien didn't like the look on his face, "You opened the bathroom and-"

"W-We don't need to share all the details, Nino!" He rushed out, stepping on his friend's foot. Much as he liked Alya the girl could be a newshound and he didn't exactly feel comfortable giving her such information. Even if she promised to never spread it he wouldn't be able to live with himself if she could hold it over his head.

"Oh what, you can't stop there!" Alya pressed, leaning forward excitedly, "A little dirt about Mr. Perfect? I can't pass this up!"

"A-Alya-"

"Alright, but you owe me one for this!" He crossed his arms, adopting a 'business posture', "You see when Adrien opened the door it wasn't-"

"Say another word and I'll tell her what happened at the camping trip." Nino gave him a look of shock, mouth parting open comically as if asking him if he would dare, but he held his ground, "Yes, I'm going there. And don't try to tell Alya when you leave cause I'll know."

"Man, you're no fun!" He clapped Adrien's shoulder playfully, "Well, come on, Alya. Your place, right?"

"Nino..."

"Cool your jets, dude. I know when I'm beat." He held up his hands in mock surrender, "Me and Alya are just going to search for a painting to use, nothing else. Trust me, the camping...incident is way more embarrassing than the bathroom one."

"Now I'm really curious," Alya teased.

Adrien laughed slightly and waved goodbye to the pair, leaving him alone with Marinette. The girl had been unnaturally quiet the entire time and it was beginning to worry him. She was normally vibrant, but the second she caught sight of him she clammed up. He was (reasonably) sure that she didn't hate him and he couldn't ever recall a time where he offended her that would make her dislike him so it was probably something else.

"So, ready to go?" He asked.

"Y-Yup, lets go!" God, why did she have to scream that? She needed to calm the heck down.

Thankfully he didn't seem to notice and soon they were walking side-by-side through the afternoon streets. Despite her nervousness she couldn't help but hum to herself happily. She and Adrien were going to the museum together and with no Chloe in sight! Had she died and gone to heaven? ...No, wait, if her vision of heaven included math homework then there was definitely something wrong with her.

Ah, whatever! Adrien and her were technically hanging out so it didn't matter if it wasn't a date, and tomorrow he would go to her house...

Her house...that had pictures of him from his magazines, a copy of his schedule on her dropboard and a collage of his best photos being used as her computer's wallpaper.

...

...She had some cleaning to do once she got home.

* * *

 **This was...very difficult to write. I'm used to more logical and matter-of-fact writing/narration, so Marinette's point of view was extremely taxing. If anyone has any tips on how to improve I'm all for it, this is a learning experience for me :) Since this is just the beginning it'll be pretty short, I need to get the creative juices flowing and all. I'll try to make the next chapter longer along with adding POV's for Adrien.**

 **Forgive any typos, I'm lacking a proofreader for this story as of this moment.**


End file.
